Daily Check-In 10/26/2018

Daily Check-In

Friday, October 26, 2018 and the weekend.

 

StrongerThanHate

Yeah, this weekend sucked.  At first, I was only going to have a post covering Friday, then include the weekend with Monday’s.  That was before Saturday morning.  That was before I saw the unmarked police car on a Code 3 alert blasting through the Liberty Tunnels.  That was before I saw the SWAT team van driving at full speed down the Parkway.  That was before I saw a few other police cars heading to the city at breakneck speed.

As I’ve said before, I’m from Pittsburgh.  So this shit hits home.  I’ve worked in Squirrel Hill, shopped there, ate there. Hell, I’ve worked at the Tree of Life Synagogue years ago on a service call.  I don’t think I knew anyone involved, but this is way too fucking close for comfort.

This was supposed to be a post talking about domestic terrorism and how a tragedy was narrowly avoided, but that we need to stay vigilant to avert disaster in the future, and how crazy things can get going forward.  Instead, it’s already crazy.  We need to keep focused, and get through the next few days, organize, and vote like our lives depend on it.  Because, for a lot of people, they might.

Also, that image at the top of this page is about the most Yinzer way of showing solidarity possible.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Ukrainian oligarch and Paul Manafort associate Dmytro Firtash is one step closer to seeing the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

The European Union Court of Justice issued a ruling on Wednesday denying the possibility for Firtash to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling removes a final hurdle to Firtash’s extradition to the United States, leaving it up to Austria’s Supreme Court to decide on the oligarch’s deportation.

Firtash’s attorneys wrote in a letter this month that the European court ruling would allow the oligarch’s case to be “quickly” decided.

“Mr. Firtash’s lawyers believe that the Austrian Supreme Court will move quickly and Mr. Firtash could face extradition in a short time frame following the decision by the Court of Justice,” wrote Firtash lawyer Dan Webb in an Oct. 9 letter to Chicago Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.

Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch known alternately for acting as middleman in a scheme to jack up gas prices for European customers and for ordering Manafort to scout out an $850 million New York City real estate opportunity, has been awaiting extradition to federal court in Chicago since his arrest in Austria in March 2014.

Firtash, who prosecutors have alleged is “an upper-echelon” member of Russian organized crime, was indicted on foreign bribery charges relating to a scheme to gain rights to mine titanium in India for use in Boeing’s supply chain.

Vice President Pence told NBC News Saturday that he has not been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller‘s team as part of its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The comment comes more than a month after Pence said he would be “more than willing” to sit down with the special counsel.

“Have you been interviewed by the special counsel’s office?” NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard asked Pence during a wide-ranging interview aired on Sunday.

“I have not,” Pence replied.

 

MAGABOMBER

Good thread by fmr. GOP strategist and McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt:

Whether Cesar Sayoc is sick or evil or maybe a bit of both will become clearer in the days ahead. Certainly he was a loser. A loser who latched onto Trump’s cult of personality and virtuous victimhood. His failures could be explained by the conspiracies and minorities who were stealing his entitlement. He fell in line behind his avenger, a dime store Mussolini who assaults the institutions of our country, divides the American people, demagogues every issue, emboldens white supremacists and lies thousands of times a year. They were not lies though. Objective reality crumbled in his mind. What was true was what his leader believed or said. That was enough. It was he that the billion dollar anger and propaganda industry was targeting. When Gingrich smirked into the camera that it was all about Kavanaugh and the Caravan it was the Sayocs of the world he was talking to. Trump ignited a passion in him to serve. He decided to be a soldier and a terrorist and strike back against the enemies, criminals and saboteurs who were stealing America. They were Trumps enemies. And so they were his. He would strike at the traitors, the enemies of the people. Trump winked at the violence. He knew Trump was right. There were good people on both sides in Charlottesville. The country was soon to be invaded by the Caravan. He decided to become an assasin. He would do what had to be done to enemies of the people. He would kill them by mailing bombs to them. All of them. All of Trumps enemies. He launched a massive assassination plot and tried to kill 2 former Presidents and many more. It was not enough for him to drive around in his van festooned with images of Trump anymore. He heard the message. Trump incites and inflames. He is a tribal chief at war. He is as illiberal as he is vile, corrupt and inept. He created the dystopian alternate reality where this loser lived. This is reality.

 

TREE OF LIFE SHOOTING

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Fuck that, and fuck you Pence.  You homophobic, bigoted piece of goat excrement.  You are the worst kind of Christian.  You hide behind your religion as a shield for all of your hatreds, claiming that it’s “God’s will” that others not like you should suffer.

Oh, and Mueller hasn’t talked to you yet because you are a fucking suspect in a treason investigation.  Traitor.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

I think people are underrating just how colossally screwed Trump will be if/when the Dems win the House. [THREAD]

1/ All of the committees will be chaired by Democrats. Schiff at Intelligence. Nadler at Judiciary. Cummings at Oversight. Waters at Financial Services. These Committees have the power to investigate, serve subpoenas, and keep the spotlight on the crimes of Trump and his cronies.

2/ For example, Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary and a horrible human being who looks like the melted-face Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark, will suddenly find himself in a world of trouble. This stuff will no longer fly:

3/ Nadler has not forgotten about Brett Kavanaugh, and Mark Judge WILL be called to testify about that Beach Week night. Kavanaugh can be impeached, too, and will.

4/ I CAN’T WAIT to watch systematically destroy . It will be like in Pac-Man, where Pac-Man eats the magic dot and can go chase down the ghosts. The Putin asset Nunes will wind up in prison or in exile in Baku.

5/ In short, the Congress that has abrogated its duty to check presidential power is a *GOP* Congress. A Dem Congress will have no qualms about draining the swamp, for realz, and fulfilling its Constitutional obligations.

6/ Then there’s the matter of impeachment. Spoiler alert: no matter what they say on the stump, a Dem Congress WILL impeach Trump, on any one of a dozen potential charges. It takes a simple majority vote PER CHARGE to move the process along.

7/ After the House votes to impeach Trump on X number of charges, the Senate conducts an investigation and holds a trial. THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL TRUMP WILL EVER LET THAT HAPPEN. Allowing himself to testify, under oath, when he knows he’s guilty af?

8/ No, Trump will resign, as Nixon did, before it gets that far. It’s the only way he can control the narrative. By then, Mueller’s report may well be done, and Trump’s son and son-in-law indicted.

28 replies189 retweets870 likes

9/ The week ahead is going to be batshit. Trump is well aware that his only chance now is to flood the zone with crap and hope voters get ennui and stay away from the polls. Because if the House flips, Trump is done. The Senate would be nice, but isn’t necessary.

So: eyes on the prize, folks. , because if we flip enough seats, the blue will wash away the orange stain on our democracy. Ten more days, folks. Get out and make it so, because the future of our republic depends on it. [END]

PS Please keep the defeatist talk off my feed. All it does is make people lethargic by making them feel depressed and hopeless, which is exactly what Putin wants.

 

 

That’s it for the last few days.  It’s been rough.  Monday’s post will be shorter.  I didn’t spend a lot of time researching it.  Plus, I spent a lot of time laughing at NFL news.  The Browns fired Hue Jackson and Todd Haley.  I spent more time than I should have laughing at that.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Published by noneofthisisnormal

Published

One thought on “Daily Check-In 10/26/2018”

  1. Pingback: Daily Check-In 10/30/2018 – None of this is Normal

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s